


Pain Felt Four Times Over

by nyanbacon



Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: :), Angst, Crying, Grief, Hurt Some Comfort, Kai angst, Lots of tears, M/M, Multi, Nya is mentioned, Orphan - Freeform, Other, Pain, Panic Attack, Sort Of, Tears, Wu is there, it has the plot of a wattpad fanfiction but the quality of an ao3 fic, just straight kai angst, mostly - Freeform, so are the ninja's parents, so im not really sure what to do about that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-15
Updated: 2020-09-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:07:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26474659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nyanbacon/pseuds/nyanbacon
Summary: Concept: The ninja are having trouble getting along and working as a team, so a villain puts a spell on them so that they can feel each other's pain, both physical and emotional.Result: Kai cries a lot because he doesn't have parents to visit him.Really this should've been a full-blown fic but I just wanted to focus on Kai angst rather than write a whole plot, so this is probably what would be a "second to last chapter" in a multi-chapter fic.
Relationships: Cole/Kai/Jay Walker/Zane
Comments: 6
Kudos: 146





	Pain Felt Four Times Over

There were two days left on the spell, and it hadn’t brought the ninja any closer. If anything, it seemed to push them further apart. Everyone was annoyed at Jay and his incessant inventing that left their fingers numb. Cole got angry when they tried to get him to back off the training so that they wouldn’t be as sore as he was day in and day out. Zane stopped being so quick to attack during training, and went down easily, afraid of hurting everyone when he was only sparring with one of them. 

There were particular duties the ninja still had to uphold, though, and one of those was scheduled visits.

With the recent surge in popularity all over Ninjago, the ninjas’ families seemed more and more interested in visiting and seeing the accomplishments that went unnoticed-- especially Jay’s parents. The organization of such an event had been negotiated for ages by the ninja before Wu decided that a conclusion would never be reached with them in charge, and put it together for them. 

Unfortunately, it happened to fall on the last day of the spell.

Before the arrival, the ninja vowed to put off any physical training or potential harm until the next day, or avoid it as well as they could. None of them wanted anything to go wrong while they were trying to prove their worth to their parents (this concern mainly came from Cole, although it was unanimously decided upon).

Jay’s parents were the first to arrive, followed by Cole’s dad and his quartet, and then by Professor Julien. Each took their respective guardian on a short tour of the Bounty, before regrouping in the bridge to chat with Wu about what had been happening, and what would be going on in the future. 

Kai was  _ there _ , of course. He had to be, to show they were a team. He hung around in the back, though, alone. Nya had very purposefully decided to skip the meeting, and the others were very obviously preoccupied.

Kai had never really taken the time to grieve over the loss of his parents. He wanted to say their death had hit him harder than Nya, but if this week proved anything to him, it was that he couldn’t say that something hurt him more than anyone else. Of course, he’d known them for longer, but Nya had been young, and they both lost a lot of familial development they should’ve gotten. 

But Kai.... he immediately fell into the role of protector to Nya, and it still permeated into his life now. It showed in the way he talked to her and treated her, and everyone could tell. He’d always taken the position seriously, and would set aside his own needs in favor of Nya’s. 

So grieving had been out of the question. He didn’t cry,  _ refused _ to, and shoved it deep and ignored it. It made him angry, and for the longest time, the  _ smallest _ sign of fatherly love made him crack and splinter and lash out at people who didn’t deserve his anger. It got easier to control when he got older, but it was still there, always lingering in the back of his mind whenever he watched his teammates interact with their family.

Then, he was able to take it in small doses. He was still with his team, and some danger was looming above their heads so he had something to distract himself with. Now, the crippling sorrow and anger and grief settled on his shoulders like the weight of the ocean on a drowning child, and he could do nothing but watch as he distanced himself from reality and just kind of floated in the recesses of his consciousness. 

The jarring pain in his chest jerked him back to reality, and he felt his throat close up with a threatening sob. He pressed a hand to his mouth, fearing what would happen if he made any noise, disrupted the conversation in any way. The others hadn’t seemed to notice the pain yet, or if they had, they were just ignoring it. Kai edged around the edge of the room, before pushing open the door and dismissing himself.

No one was there to see him, anyway, so there wasn’t anyone to care. 

At first, the pain was merely a dull pulse that made his breathing airtight. As he focused more on the pain, trying to suppress it, the reason for the pain kept slamming the front of his mind-- image after image of his parents, the way his mother would hold him and Nya when they were little, and how hard his father worked to teach his impatient little mind how to work at the anvil, and just the  _ way _ they loved him--

He turned and punched the wooden wall of the shared bedroom. Pain shot up his arm and he sobbed suddenly, sinking to his knees and gripping his knuckles. Everything  _ hurt _ . His heart felt like it was splitting into pieces in his chest and he couldn’t breathe. 

He just wanted it to  _ stop _ .

Jay first noticed the pain when it became hard to breathe past the lump in his throat. He swallowed hard, but couldn’t get it to fade away. He glanced at Cole, who was looking at him with a furrowed brow. Even Zane looked a little pained.

Jay couldn’t figure out  _ what _ the pain was. He’d never come close to feeling something this strongly. It felt like someone was twisting a knife around and around in his chest while suffocating him with chains. He was lucky Wu was talking to his parents right now because he didn’t think he would’ve been able to say anything. 

Something akin to recognition flashed across Zane’s face, and Jay oh so desperately wanted to ask him what had caused it, but there was a sudden flaring pain from his knuckles, traveling up his wrist and into his arm, and he inhaled sharply, moving to clutch his hand. Cole similarly grimaced, gripping his wrist and biting his lip. Zane flinched.

Edna looked over at Jay’s gasp. “Jay, dear, are you alright?”

Jay bit his lip and nodded, not able to say anything past the suffocating feeling in his throat.

Cole stepped over, moving the hand that wasn’t on fire with an ache to grab Jay’s shoulder firmly. “We think he might be coming down with something.” Worry twisted Edna’s face as Cole tugged Jay away from the group. “We should take him off to bed before he sneezes or something and gets you all sick.”

“I will go with you,” Zane offered, voice clipped. The older adults were left watching the hurriedly retreating ninja.

Jay let out an audible whine of pain once they were out of the room and gripped his wrist tightly. “What the hell is going on?”

“Where’s Kai?” Cole added, glancing around the deck. It only just occurred to him that Kai wasn’t on the bridge when this had happened.

Zane didn’t answer or voice any questions of his own. Instead, he headed off in the direction of their bedroom.

“Zane,” Jay called, before hurrying after him. “Zane, what’re you--”

Zane shushed them as he stopped outside the closed door of the room, and pointed to it. Jay didn’t have to strain his ears to hear it though. Horrible, gut-wrenching sobs sounded from inside the room, each one followed by a frantic gasp for air that didn’t fix anything. The three felt every sob in their throat and every gasp for air in their tight chests.

Cole reached out and opened the door.

Kai was curled up with his back against one of the walls on the floor, rocking back and forth with his hand sandwiched between his thighs and his stomach. Tears streamed down his face, and he looked up when the door opened, but couldn’t get his distressed crying under control. 

Zane nudged past Cole and stepped across the room carefully, kneeling down next to Kai. He carded his fingers through Kai’s hair gently, and trailed his hand down to rest on Kai’s cheek, rubbing his tears with his thumb.

“Parents?” was all he had to ask, and Kai was overcome with a new wave of tears. He nodded shakily, moving forward and wrapping his shaking arms around Zane’s neck. Zane shushed him, sitting down on the floor and returning the hug as he pulled Kai into his lap.

A twinge of guilt hit Jay’s stomach.  _ Of course _ Kai would’ve reacted badly to this whole thing. Each of them had lost their parents, sure, but… well. Jay had been picked up by another loving family. Cole still had his dad. And even Zane was able to find his origins.

Kai really only had Nya, and he was the older one. It was his responsibility to watch over her. He was the closest thing either of them had to a guardian. 

But who was supposed to be there for Kai through all that?

Jay was snapped out of his thoughts by a strangled, “ _ sorry _ ,” from Kai’s lips. Cole’s face twisted into a sorrowful frown.

“Don’t apologize, Kai. This…” Cole swallowed. “None of this is your fault.”

“Although I think you might want to make sure you didn’t break your hand,” Jay added. His statement  _ clearly _ wasn’t approved of, but Zane carefully untangled Kai’s arms from around him so he could hold his icy hands over Kai’s bleeding knuckles.

Kai wiped at his face shakily with his free arm, hiccuping and sobbing but finding the icy touch somewhat grounding. Cole approached warily and sat down on Kai’s other side, placing his hand on Kai’s back. The fire ninja stared at Zane’s hand and didn’t speak.

Eventually, Jay stepped over and sat down between Zane and Cole. “We should be the sorry ones,” he said after a while of nothing but sniffles.

Kai looked up at him with teary and confused eyes. “Huh?”

“We could’ve talked them out of coming,” Cole said carefully. “Avoided this whole thing.”

“If we had known it would be this hard on you,” Zane added. “We would have done everything in our power to avoid it.”

“B-but…” Kai swallowed. “‘at’s not fair to you guys…”

“It’s  _ just _ as unfair for you to be reminded that you don’t…” Jay trailed off, not wanting to outright say ‘you don’t have parents anymore’. That  _ really _ wouldn’t have gone over well.

Kai looked down at the floorboards and didn’t say anything. Zane defrosted his hands and inspected the scabbing blood on Kai’s knuckles, and the slight swelling around his wrist. They all felt the pain return when the ice trailed off, but they couldn’t find it in themselves to care.

Kai slowly leaned forward and rested his forehead on Zane’s shoulder, heaving a shaky breath. “You don’t have to stay with me,” he said, voice weak.

“Yeah, right, like we’d leave you and expect you to not hurt yourself again.” Cole flicked Kai’s back lightly, trying at a joking tone and just sounding concerned. “We’re staying.”

“Wu can deal with our parents all he wants, but he can’t deal with you like we can.” Jay nudged Kai’s shoulder, and Kai couldn’t keep a small smile from forming on his tear-stained face. 

**Author's Note:**

> dont mind me venting my grief.  
> this is actually an older fic that I just put off uploading, but every time I read it I thought that it was really good so I just went "fuck it might as well post it so other people can Feel Things"


End file.
